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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Choose Crawlbase when you want to send URLs to an API and have the service manage rendering, proxying, anti-bot handling, retries, or high-volume crawling. Choose Apify when you want reusable scraping programs called Actors, prebuilt tools from a marketplace, scheduled runs, datasets, and workflows assembled from multiple components. They overlap, but they are built around different starting points: Crawlbase is API-first; Apify is a broader platform for running and connecting jobs.
This comparison reflects vendor documentation described as current on September 29, 2026. Prices, quotas, and feature availability can change; the figures below are not a substitute for checking each provider’s live terms before you commit.
How the two services work
Crawlbase: send a request, get a page
Crawlbase centers on tokenized REST APIs. Its Crawling API accepts a URL and parameters, with documented support for JavaScript rendering, anti-bot bypass, geo-routing, and integration with scraper libraries. That makes it a natural starting point when your application already knows which URLs to request and what to do with the returned page.
For workloads beyond a straightforward request, Crawlbase also documents an asynchronous Enterprise Crawler, Smart AI Proxy, and Cloud Storage. The Enterprise Crawler is a queued option for high-volume URL processing, with webhook delivery, retries, rate management, and persistence. Smart AI Proxy exposes its network through a proxy interface; Cloud Storage can persist HTML or parsed JSON for later retrieval. Crawlbase says its APIs share a token, and its API reference says subscribed products share pricing and concurrency budgets.
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Apify: run a program called an Actor
Apify’s central unit is an Actor: a program that accepts structured JSON input, performs a task such as scraping, browser automation, or data processing, and stores its results on the platform. You can start Actors manually, call them through an API, or schedule them. Their outputs can be passed to other Actors or integrations.
Apify Store offers thousands of public Actors made by Apify and its community. This can save development time when an existing Actor fits your target and output needs, but it also means choosing, configuring, and evaluating that Actor is part of the job. Teams can instead build their own Actors and tune concurrency and resources as part of the platform workflow.
Feature comparison
| Decision area | Crawlbase | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Tokenized REST API, plus an asynchronous crawler for queued work. | Platform for running serverless Actors and connecting their outputs. |
| Basic setup | Send a URL and parameters; a basic fetch does not require authoring an Actor. | Select or build an Actor, configure input, run it, then consume its output. |
| Rendering and blocking | Vendor documentation describes JavaScript rendering, anti-bot bypass, geo-routing, retries, and proxy options. | Browser-capable Actors and proxy products are available; the user configures the Actor and proxy behavior. |
| Results and persistence | HTML, JSON, Markdown, webhook-delivered crawler results, and Cloud Storage are documented options. | Datasets, key-value stores, request queues, and integrations are platform components. |
| Scaling approach | The asynchronous Enterprise Crawler is intended for high-volume queues and includes server-side retry and rate-management features. | Actor concurrency and resource tuning are part of operating a platform workflow. |
| Best fit | Direct API integration and managed request handling. | Reusable scraping workflows, marketplace tools, schedules, and connected pipelines. |
These are differences in how work is organized, not a claim that one service can never handle the other’s use cases. Crawlbase minimizes the machinery your team needs to operate for a URL-fetching workflow. Apify exposes more building blocks for teams that want to package, reuse, schedule, and connect jobs.
Rank #2
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Crawlbase vs. Apify pricing
Crawlbase: request-oriented figures
Crawlbase documentation dated 2026 lists up to 5,000 free requests, coverage of 195 countries, and up to 51 million requests per month per token. Those are vendor-stated limits, not independent measurements. The API-reference information says subscribed Crawlbase products share pricing and concurrency budgets. A vendor comparison describes billing in terms of successful requests, but the exact live plan prices and conditions are not established here. Verify the current pricing page and plan details before estimating a bill.
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Apify subscriptions include prepaid platform usage that can be spent across Actors, proxies, data transfer, and storage. Its documentation gives compute-unit examples of $0.20 on Starter and $0.16 on Scale. These are plan examples, not guaranteed current rates. Unused prepaid usage expires at the end of the billing cycle.
Free-plan users can use most platform features and Apify Proxy within the platform, but cannot continue after exhausting prepaid usage until the next cycle. Paid plans can allow overage within configured limits. A run’s total cost can also involve compute, storage, proxy use, data transfer, retries, and, for some Store Actors, pay-per-event or pay-per-usage charges. A plan’s monthly sticker price alone therefore does not tell you what a particular scrape will cost.
Rank #3
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Compare the cost of a successful result
For Crawlbase, estimate how many requests you expect to succeed and confirm how the chosen plan defines a billable request. For Apify, include Actor runtime and resources, proxy mix, storage, transfer, retries, and any Store Actor event pricing. Compare equivalent work: the same target set, acceptable output, and success criteria. Recheck both providers’ current pricing and limits immediately before choosing; the figures above were described as current on September 29, 2026, and are volatile.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Crawlbase when
- Your integration starts with a URL and you want a direct API request rather than an Actor workflow.
- Managed JavaScript rendering, anti-bot handling, geo-routing, or retries are central to the request path.
- You want an asynchronous queue for high-volume crawling and webhook delivery.
- A request-oriented cost model is easier for your team to forecast, after confirming the live definition of a successful, billable request.
Choose Apify when
- You need to find, configure, or build reusable Actors rather than only fetch pages.
- Scheduled jobs, datasets, integrations, and multi-step pipelines are important parts of the system.
- You want to combine scraping with browser automation or processing and pass results between platform components.
- You may publish or reuse a scraper as a product, and can account for the Actor’s resource and usage costs.
If the workload needs both styles
Prototype the same representative target on both services before moving a large workload. Measure successful-page cost, engineering time, output quality, and the operational controls you need. No head-to-head benchmark is available here, so there is no evidence-based universal winner for speed, accuracy, or total cost. A small trial can also reveal whether a target needs browser rendering, whether the desired Actor already exists, and how much cleanup your downstream code must do.
What to test before production
- Define success. Decide what counts as a usable result: an HTTP response alone may not be enough if you need rendered content, specific fields, or a complete dataset.
- Use representative pages. Include ordinary pages and the difficult cases in your real workload, such as JavaScript-heavy pages or targets that trigger blocking. Do not extrapolate from a single easy URL.
- Test the output path. For Crawlbase, check the response format and whether you need Cloud Storage or webhook delivery for queued work. For Apify, verify the Actor’s input schema and where its output is stored before wiring it into another step.
- Track the whole cost. Record successful results alongside retries and any applicable compute, proxy, storage, transfer, or event charges. Include your engineering and maintenance time in the decision.
- Check operational behavior. Confirm how you will handle failures, retry limits, rate management, and the handoff from a completed crawl or Actor run to your application.
Common decision and implementation problems
“The free allowance means this workload is free.”
Not necessarily. Crawlbase’s stated allowance is up to 5,000 free requests; check eligibility and the live plan terms. Apify’s free-plan platform usage is finite, and its documentation says work cannot continue after that prepaid usage is exhausted until the next cycle. Estimate the actual workload instead of treating either free tier as unlimited.
Rank #4
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“Apify’s plan price is the price per scrape.”
It is not a complete per-run estimate. Actor execution can add resource use, proxies, storage, transfer, retries, or Store Actor event pricing. Check the specific Actor’s pricing and your account’s usage controls, then model the full run.
“A high request limit guarantees the needed throughput.”
A monthly ceiling is not a throughput guarantee. Crawlbase’s 51 million requests per month per token is a vendor-documented figure for 2026; it does not by itself establish the concurrency or rate available to your plan. Confirm current concurrency budgets, and test the workload’s actual scheduling and response needs.
“Rendering or a proxy automatically solves every blocked page.”
The vendor descriptions establish that these capabilities are offered, not that every target will succeed. Validate important domains with representative requests and inspect returned content for challenges, incomplete rendering, or unexpected page structure. Configure the service and your own retry or escalation policy around the results you actually observe.
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“I can compare bills without comparing outputs.”
A cheaper response is not useful if it omits the content or fields the application needs. Set an output-quality threshold first, then compare the cost of results that meet it. For a mixed workload, separate simple fetches from tasks that need browser automation or a multi-step pipeline; they may not belong in the same comparison.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A screenshot-specific alternative: ScreenshotNeo
If the task is to capture a webpage as an image or PDF rather than extract structured data or run a scraper pipeline, try ScreenshotNeo first. It is a website screenshot API and MCP server, not a replacement for Crawlbase or Apify when you need scraped fields, datasets, or Actors. It can return PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF; its clean-shot options accept consent banners and remove more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before capture, with each step switchable. Bot checks and failed captures such as blank pages, timeouts, or failed loads are not billed, and responses identify the page verdict and billing status. AI agents can use its MCP server tools, including take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf.
For example, one GET request can capture a page as WebP. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for parameters and setup.
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpScreenshotNeo’s free plan includes 1,000 shots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots. Every feature is available on every plan. Sign up for ScreenshotNeo and start with 1,000 free screenshots a month, no card required.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Crawlbase a good Apify alternative?
Yes, if you mainly need a managed URL-fetching API and its request, rendering, proxy, and retry options fit your workload. Apify is a closer fit when Actors, schedules, datasets, and reusable pipelines are requirements.
Which is cheaper, Crawlbase or Apify?
There is no universal answer from the available pricing figures. Crawlbase costs depend on the selected plan and billable requests; Apify costs depend on included usage and the resources and services a run consumes. Compare equivalent successful results using current plan terms.
Can Apify run scheduled scraping jobs?
Yes. Apify Actors can be scheduled, as well as started manually or called through the API.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
